This invention relates generally to integrated circuit chip carriers and more particularly, it relates to a protective housing for a leadless chip carrier (LCC) or plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) package which is used to protect the package from damage or possible destruction during testing and shipping.
While integrated circuits are conventionally housed in flat packs or dual in-line package (DIP) structures, such DIP structures become unsuitable as high density packaging of circuit functions formed on a single circuit chip increases. As a response to this demand for high density packaging for integrated circuits, there has been developed in the industry leadless chip carrier (LCC) packages and plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) packages. Typically, these LCC or PLCC packages are of a rectangular shape in which the dimensions of the four edges are varying in width and length. This is due to the fact that the package size is dependent upon the number of bond pads (for the LCC) or terminal leads (for the PLCC) which may vary from 18 to 52.
Thus, there has been encountered the problem of extra labor costs involved in adjusting of the rails in a test handler so as to accommodate the various chip package sizes when it is desired to make a test on them. Further, a number of these chip packages are generally placed laterally into a tube adjacent each other without separation during shipment. As a result, the chip packages are susceptible to being damaged during such handling and subsequent shipment.
It is therefore believed what is needed is a more or less universal housing for protecting a LCC or PLCC package from damage or possible destruction which will accommodate a wide range of carrier package sizes. It would also be expedient to provide a housing which can be formed as a molded single-piece structure that can be easily operated without the need of special equipment for inserting and removing of the chip packages from the housing. The housing for protecting a chip package of the present invention has been designed with all of these features which have been traditionally unavailable.